The Bet
by OrionsArtemis
Summary: Ryli and Risha's first night out.
1. Debriefing

Corso explored the ship a bit. Risha had been a surprise, but the Captain was pretty happy about the prospects of the haul Risha had proposed. Risha was doing some kind of serious research now and had chased him off. This was a great ship, he had to admit. There was even a bar. He was pretty impressed and finally understood why she'd been so mad at its theft. Ryli'd kissed him when they'd stepped aboard. He shook his head; it was like she was trying to drive him crazy.

"Corso!" came a shout down the hall.

He rushed down the hall and turned into... the shower room. One of which was on. With clouds of steam rolling from it and flashes of pale yellow-green colored skin coming into and out of view through the clear plastic. Corso swallowed hard, unable to move his eyes away. _That's an arm, that had to have been a leg... oh stars, that was... _ He finally managed to jerk his eyes towards the wall. "Problem, Captain?"

"Just wanted to brief you on what we're doing next."

"Ah, I could wait outside."

"Why? You've seen me naked before, Riggs." She sounded genuinely curious.

"Ah, well, you're, ah," he stammered.

"Getting clean?"

_Oh yes, that's exactly what I need to be thinking about right now. Her scrubbing..._ He stopped his thoughts abruptly and tried to focus on what she wanted. _Is she doing this on purpose?_

"You said brief me, Captain?"

"Yes, we're heading to Taris and they have a terrible rakghoul problem, so make sure you bring a couple extra weapons. I'm going to pick up a few more blades before we leave the fleet."

"Rakghoul?" _That is definitely a hip._

"Some kind of beast. I've been reading what I can on it. Unfortunately, you're going to have to do the bulk of the fighting if rakghoul blood is as dangerous as I've read."

"Why's that?" _I must be beet red by this point. If she steps out and sees me... oh no, steps out._

"Because I work with knives, Riggs," her voice sounded amused. "Knife wounds shed a lot more blood than blaster fire."

"Right. Of course."

The shower clicked off and swung open before he could move. Every inch of his Captain walked towards him in what felt like slow motion. She looked even better than he remembered, if that was possible. Her hand reached out and he stared, open-mouthed, not capable of coherent thought. After what felt like a year, she said, "Riggs?"

He gulped, he could just take her hand and pull her to him. It would so easy. He'd never been so grateful for the solid durasteel armor that he was wearing, getting shot at didn't even make him this happy to be wearing it. He couldn't pull her to him, she'd hit the metal and it would be cold.

"Riggs? Hand me my towel?"

He looked behind him and there was her towel, hanging on a hook. He put it into her outstretched hand.

"Thanks," she started drying off. He'd never seen her hair down out of the carefully arranged buns before. It was long and drifted over her... _I have to get out of here._

"I'll just go make sure my blasters are clean then," he said, stumbling back out of the room.

He passed Risha in the hallway, having obviously overheard him and she stopped to talk. "The Captain and I are going out tonight, do you want to come?"

Corso shook his head, his face still burning. "I'm probably going to stay in."

"Stay in and clean your blasters."

He blinked. "Yeah."

"Gotcha, have fun."

Behind him, he heard Risha say something to Ryli that made them both burst out laughing.

* * *

Ryli was cheerful that night. Corso was still playing hard to get, as far as she could tell, but Risha was good company.

"So seriously, do you think he has any idea what that sounded like?"

"I have no clue." Ryli paused, a slow grin spreading over her face, "The man can kiss, but seems to be slightly oblivious in other respects."

"You have a thing for him."

Ryli nodded, "I expected to get it out of my system early on, but he's being rather obstinate."

"So driving him mad with desire is your solution?"

Ryli shrugged, "One of us will have to give in eventually. I'm assuming it'll be him, since we both want each other and he's the only one stopping it." She raised two fingers at the bartender and he brought over two shots for them. She and Risha clicked them, tossing them back. They turned back to look around the bar. "Until then," she looked around, "I'm open to suggestions."

Risha's grin widened, "What would say to a wager?"

"What kind of wager?"

"Well, we're already pretty drunk."

"Speak for yourself."

"So, let's see how many drinks you can have bought for you."

"As in, how many drinks I can con from different guys?"

"Exactly."

"Rules?"

"What rules?"

Ryli rolled her eyes, "Can I trade a kiss for a drink? Am I allowed to lie? Stuff like that."

Risha seemed to look at Ryli for the first time in any seriousness. "Hmm, no holds bar?"

"You're on; what are the terms?"

"We won't remember who won in the morning. Whoever wakes up alone loses."

"Tie breaker?"

"Hotter guy."

Ryli glanced around the bar, catching the eye of one or two men she wouldn't be upset to wake up next to. "Let's do it," she said with a grin.


	2. Pancakes

Ryli woke up with a headache, but a peek at the guy in bed next to her was enough to remind her why. She grinned and quietly made her way out of her room.

Down the hall, she caught a glimpse of Risha turning into the bar area. The smell of something delicious cooking momentarily distracted her, but she shook her head and crowed "I definitely win," as she spun into the room.

Risha smirked as Ryli caught sight of Corso putting something onto a plate.

"Do you?"

Ryli quelled her surge of regret and grinned, "Go peek in my room if you don't believe me."

Risha walked down the hall and Ryli turned to Corso.

"What's all this?"

"Breakfast. I figured you two would need a good meal in the morning, so I picked some stuff up last night."

"I didn't know you could cook, Riggs."

He shrugged, "Used to make stuff at Viidu's, when we could get the supplies and it was my turn to cook. I'm not the best, but I do some things well."

Rylia inhaled from the plate Corso handed her. "These are pancakes!"

He handed her some syrup, "You like pancakes?"

She settled down at the bar and dug in. "I love pancakes; we always had them when I was little..." she broke off quietly and then continued, "These are the best I've had in years, Riggs." His smile was blinding. He watched her eat, she noticed.

Risha returned, "I'm impressed Captain. I'll concede this one to you. We'll have to play again sometime."

Ryli paused in eating and smirked, ignoring how Corso turned back to the counter to hide his expression.

* * *

Corso heard footsteps through the ship and a deep male voice greeting Ryli and then Risha. He fumbled another pancake onto a plate and silently handed it to the guy. No use in being rude, it'd just get her mad at him anyway. He'd tried it before.

The guy was another Mirialan and Corso blinked, taking the guy's outstretched hand to shake.

"I'm Heathai," the guy said. _Those were the same face tattoos Ryli had; what did that mean?_

"Corso." He handed him the plate, nodded at his thanks and stole a quick peek at Ryli. She was blissfully shoving mouthfuls of pancakes into her mouth, but at least she was focused on that.

Risha had picked up her plate and was examining him carefully as she ate.

"So, you're Risha's boyfriend?" said Heathai.

Corso sputtered, stammering. Risha raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Nope," in such a tone that shut down further questioning. It was so smooth that Corso was briefly jealous. He wished he could have stopped the conversation like that.

Ryli finished her pancakes and smiled at Heathai, "I'll walk you out," she said cheerfully, but firmly.

The two of them rounded the corner and Risha waited for the hatch to hiss before spinning on Corso. "What the fuck was that?"

He blinked and took a step back.

"What are you talking about?"

"Why didn't you immediately deny we were a couple?"

"I got flustered! Sheesh, Risha, jump down a guy's throat, why don'tcha."

Risha paused and carefully put her plate down. She blocked the exit from the bar and advanced on him.

"What... what are you doing?"

"You didn't deny it, might as well try it out. You might want me." She ran her eyes over him, inhaling and drawing his attention to... _Eyes on the ceiling, Riggs_, "You're certainly built nicely enough."

"Risha, don't!" Corso blushed. He pressed himself back against the wall and then finally vaulted over the bar into the rest of the room to escape her advance, shaking. She watched this with interest and then folded her arms, smiling.

"So why not me?"

"You know why."

"I want you to say it."

He turned his head away from her, "Because of the Captain."

He heard her laugh, "Alright Farm Boy, that's good enough for now."

Hi head shot up, "For now?"

"And just for the record, I wouldn't have."

"It looked like you were..."

"Nope, I wouldn't do that."

He said sourly, "Why? We don't mean anything to each other. Ruining things between me and the Captain seems like a fun game for you."

She titled her head calmly, not denying that, "Call it a hunch."

Corso's eyes went involuntarily to the door when he realized how long Ryli'd been gone.

"Why don't you just give in to her?" Risha asked, sounding curious.

He scowled, "It's not... that easy."

"Sure it is. Just get in with her when she's in the shower, or..."

"RISHA!" He interrupted.

"Seriously, explain it to me."

"When you treat a woman like that, she never takes you serious after or you don't take her serious, but the Captain, she's special. She deserves to be treated nice."

Risha nodded thoughtfully. "You might not be what she wants."

"Then I'll hang around until I am," he said with only the faintest quiver in his voice.

Risha got a compassionate look on her face that she quickly wiped away.

"You're too nice, Corso," Risha said, "It's going to get you hurt." Then she turned and walked out of the room.

_That was a weird conversation._ He thought uncomfortably, _Or maybe you just don't want to think about what she said._


End file.
